DirectTV, TNS Media Team on Set-Top Based Ratings Service
Claiming "Largest U.S. National Audience Measurement Panel Ever"
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 1/31/2008 7:26:00 AM
DirecTV and TNS Media Research are teaming up on a TV-measurement service that will use data collected from the set-tops of 100,000 of the satellite provider’s subscribers, officials said Thursday.
The two companies are touting the venture as having “the largest U.S. national audience measurement panel ever,” a veiled slap at Nielsen Media Research’s panel of 14,000 homes.
Nielsen declined to comment on the DirecTV-TNS Media Research announcement.
TNS Media Research plans to market the new service, which is called TNS DIRECTView. Through InfoSys, the media analysis and planning system, TNS Media Research will offer subscription services that will allow clients to directly access detailed data to provide analyses of national-viewing patterns.
The new service will be introduced this year, with TNS Media Research measuring the total viewing -- including the live and time-shifted (DVR) viewing -- of programs and commercials at a second-by-second interval of 100,000 representative households within DirecTV’s national footprint. Those subscribers have to “opt-in” to be part of the panel.
TNS Media Research isn’t the only TV ratings company that is using set-top data. Nielsen has a commercial service, Nielsen DigitalPlus, that was formed a year ago and collects viewership data from the set-top boxes. Just last week, Comcast became the first client to sign up for a VOD-measurement service from Nielsen DigitalPlus that uses real-time data from set-tops.
Back last year when Nielsen unveiled Nielsen DigitalPlus, the ratings giant said it has reached an agreement to test the measurement of interactive-viewing behavior of DirecTV’s subscribers, through an anonymous panel of 300,000 of the satellite providers customers.
That test was completed last year, according to Nielsen.
Also on Thursday, TiVo said CBS had signed up for commercial-ratings data collected from a sample of 20,000 DVRs. CBS will subscribe to the TiVo StopWatch service, which provides “second-by-second measurement” of how DVR owners watch live and recorded programs and commercials. TiVo did a similar deal with NBC Universal in November.
TNS Media Research established its relationship with DirecTV last year, when it launched audience-measurement services focused on the company’s interactive subscriber households. The nation’s largest satellite provider, with 16.6 million subscribers, has been using TNS Media Research’s advanced audience measurement capabilities to better understand its customers’ anonymous use of the interactive applications it offers.
“By working with TNS Media Research, our goal is to develop a panel capability that will provide important insights across our advertising platform,” Eric Shanks, executive vice president of DirecTV Entertainment, said in a prepared statement. “These insights will in turn provide our advertisers and programming partners an unparalleled level of measurement accuracy and accountability when partnering with DirecTV.
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